Who Speaks For Islam?

Question

Who Speaks for Islam in this Era? Islam addresses the whole world and we today do not know the political aspect of Islam. The scholars who speak about the political aspect on Islam make me feel so much aggrieved. They always or mostly in one way or other teach us to become rebellious or to revolt against our corrupt leaders without mentioning the criteria as how to judge them to be corrupt. I always have found this view conflicting with traditions narrated in the Hadith books. The situation in the Arab world from today is one present example which is not more than a revolt against the leaders. Amazingly if the leaders try to resist, the rebels is considered guilty of killing, murder and tyranny but being rebellious is never considered a crime in most of the cases according to the most of the youth of the Muslims. Who really speaks for Islam? What is the view of Islam on revolting against the Leaders? If there is a right for the Leader then one should not forget the fact that the leader should be a leader in its complete sense. Who gives the rebels the right to speak that if people rebel against a leader he should not resist against the rebels? We Muslims were never in a state where we were united on one leader in any country. Why we always speak about our leaders and to revolt against them and then put ourselves behind bars or face injuries and loose our loved ones and then claim our leaders to be ruthless? Are not these we ourselves who inflict ourselves with this by revolting and making our selves killed?

Answer

By Dr. Abdullah Rahim

The only speaker for Islam is the Qur'an.

As for the views of Mr. Ghamidi on conditions of revolt, please see the following article:

http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=959

Whether the conditions mentioned in the above article apply to some of the Arab countries of our time is beyond the scope of this website.

I would only like to add one point:

One of the main duties and obligations of the state is to uphold justice in the country. Whether a peaceful revolt is justified or not, the state should not respond to it violently and unjustly. Even if the revolt is not peaceful, still the state should respond to it in a balanced scale and should not cross the boundaries of justice. Killing unarmed citizens only because they have participated in demonstrations - even if their intention is to remove and replace the state - has no justification in Islam.

It should be noted that according to the Qur'an Muslims should run their affairs - including appointment of a ruler - on the basis of consultation (42:38). If a state follows this instruction then people will not find revolt as the only option for change.

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